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<p><a href="ChimooTimerHelp.html">Chimoo Timer Help Index</a></p>
<h1>General</h1>

<h2>Basic Operation</h2>

<p>Chimoo Timer operates in two basic modes: count up and count down. Select count down or count up mode from the radio buttons in the toolbar, or from the "Control->Direction" menu if the toolbar is not visible.  Press the start button to start timing, and the stop button to stop.</p>  

<h3>Preferences</h3>
<p>Chimoo Timer has <em>extensive</em> user customizable preferences which you are encouraged to explore to make sure the various formats and alerts are set up to your liking.  Preferences for <a href="speech.html">speech</a>, <a href="speech.html">speech recognition</a>, count down alerts, repetition, display format, multiplier factor, and others may be set.</p>

<h3>Count Up</h3>
<p>Count up mode can be selected at any time, even while the timer is running in count down mode.  Use the radio buttons in the toolbar, or use the menu options under "Control->Direction."  If the timer is already counting down, it will immediately begin to count up from the current position.  Resetting the timer in count up mode will zero it.</p>

<h3>Count Down</h3>
<p>Changing to count down mode while the timer is counting up will cause it to immediately begin counting down from the current position. To set a specific count down time, use the text boxes in the toolbar, or choose "Control->Set Count Down". Resetting the timer while in count down mode will return to the time entered in the count down text boxes in the toolbar, or in the count down dialog box ("Control->Set Count Down").</p>	

<h3>Views</h3>	
<p>Chimoo Timer has four different displays: main window, mini window, multiplier window, and menu extra which can be enabled via the "Window" and "Views" menus.  The windows can be resized horizontally, but not vertically.  If desired, you can adjust the font size on the main and multiplier windows, but not on the mini window.  You can have as many of these views open at the same time as you desire, or it's also possible to hide all aspects of Chimoo Timer including the dock icon and only show the menu extra. To control the timer in the background, try <a href="speech.html">speech recognition</a>, the dock icon, or the menu extra.</p>

<h2>Reaction Time and Decimal Places</h2>
<p>According to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaction_time">Wikipedia</a>, "the average human's reaction time falls somewhere between 200 and 230 milliseconds, although athletes and others who train themselves can achieve reaction times approaching 150 milliseconds."  Hence, Chimoo Timer only shows one decimal place after the second (equivalent to 100 milliseconds) when "Include second fractions" is selected in the preferences.  If you need higher resolution than 100 milliseconds, you should probably be looking elsewhere anyway. </p>

<h2>Timer Refresh Rate and CPU Usage</h2>
<p>Although Chimoo Timer always refreshes at a sufficient rate internally, it's possible to set how fast the display refreshes in order to reduce CPU usage.  In the preferences, a separate foreground and background refresh rate can be set (between 0.1 and 1.0 seconds). When Chimoo Timer is in the foreground, or counting fractions of a second, or the dock icon is hidden, the foreground refresh rate is used.  Otherwise, the background rate is used.</p>

<p>To reduce CPU load, close all unnecessary timer views - one is best. The more bells and whistles you have enabled (such as speaking the time every second), the more CPU the timer will take.</p>

<p><a href="ChimooTimerHelp.html">Chimoo Timer Help Index</a></p>
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